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fix(hermes): refuse a chat send over text typed into Hermes' input - #1149

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fix/hermes-chat-draft
Oct 15, 2026
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devswha merged 3 commits into
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fix/hermes-chat-draft

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@devswha devswha commented Oct 15, 2026

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Split out of #859 by @RikiSanjayaa, who first guarded this.

In a Hermes pane, a chat message is pasted into Hermes' own input and sent with Enter. If that input already holds text (typed in the Terminal lens, from another device, or while Hermes was busy), the chat message joins it. Hermes then receives both as one message. Reproduced on main (79beb36): with ❯ Reply with only the word typed into classic Hermes, Chat Send "PINEAPPLE and nothing else" made Hermes run Reply with only the wordPINEAPPLE and nothing else.

Claude Code panes already refuse such a send (input_draft, claudeInputDraft). This PR extends that same path to Hermes; there is no new code or endpoint:

  • hermesInputDraft in server/prompt.ts reads the bottom-most ❯ row. Empty after the ❯ means empty. Hermes' own hint there is not a draft: the classic CLI draws its placeholder italic (its skin's placeholder: "{dim} italic"), and the TUI starts its hint with a synthetic cursor cell that has a background color (ui-tui textInput.tsx hintCursorCell). Typed text has neither. As for Claude, colors come from the viewport read and count only once viewportShowsLive verifies them; without them, any text after the ❯ is a draft. A screen with no ❯ row is not known to be empty.
  • freeHermesInput in server/index.ts runs before an immediate chat send (submitText) and before a held message's delivery (dispatchPendingText, automatic or Send now). It refuses with input_draft and a Hermes message. Hermes gets no "Clear it and send" or "Send anyway": those stay Claude's.
  • The client names the right input: submitNote/submitRefusal take the pane's agent, and so does PendingMessages. A Hermes refusal says "Not sent: Hermes' input in the terminal is not empty. Send or clear it there, then send this message." (ko/ja/zh added). Claude's wording is unchanged.

Validation

Run against a real Hermes 0.21.5 in an isolated herdr session, through the real web UI in Chrome (Playwright):

  • Classic CLI, draft in the terminal: Chat Send was refused with the Hermes note. The composer kept the text, nothing reached Hermes, and the draft stayed as typed.
  • After clearing the draft: the kept message was sent on its own (● BANANA and nothing else → BANANA).
  • Input showing only Hermes' rotating hint (❯ Draft a reply to the last email in my inbox): sent normally.
  • TUI: a draft is refused. After Ctrl+U the input shows the hint again (❯ Try "…") and the same message sends.
  • Queued message: "KIWI" was sent while Hermes worked, then text was typed into Hermes' busy input (herdr then reports Hermes idle). The automatic delivery was refused with the note on the held row, and KIWI never reached Hermes.
  • server/prompt.test.ts hermesInputDraft uses the real captured ANSI rows of both interfaces. Each of four mutations fails it: ignoring italic, ignoring the cursor chip, trusting uncolored text, and treating a missing row as empty.
  • server/submit.contract.test.ts gets two new contract tests: a Hermes draft is refused with nothing typed, and a hint-only input is sent. With the server check disabled, the refusal test fails.
  • bun run check fast: ok. submit.contract and pending-input.contract: see CI.

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📝 Summary

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • Bug Fixes
    • Prevented new or queued messages from being sent to Hermes when its terminal input already contains typed text, avoiding accidental merging of messages.
    • Added a warning explaining that the existing input must be sent or cleared first. Hermes’s placeholder hint does not block sending.

Hermes sends now check terminal input for typed text before dispatch. If a draft is present or cannot be verified, the server refuses the send. Chat displays an agent-specific refusal, with translations added in Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.

Changes: Hermes input draft protection

Layer / File(s) Summary
Draft detection
server/prompt.ts, server/prompt.test.ts
Adds hermesInputDraft to distinguish typed input from Hermes CLI and TUI hints. Tests cover empty input, missing or mismatched viewport evidence, and screens without an input row.
Send enforcement
server/index.ts, server/submit.contract.test.ts
Checks Hermes input before immediate and pending message dispatch. Contract tests verify that typed input is refused without send RPCs, while the CLI hint permits an immediate chat send.
Chat refusal reporting
src/components/PaneTerminal.tsx, src/components/PendingMessages.tsx, src/lib/compose.ts, src/lib/i18n.*.ts, changelog.d/hermes-chat-draft.md
Passes the agent identity through refusal handling and displays a Hermes-specific warning. Adds translations and a changelog entry.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Suggested reviewers: yoonwoo-ha

Merge Risk: 🟡 Moderate · up to a7ece

Hermes sends are usually refused when text is already typed in the terminal input. However, a draft containing the prompt symbol can be mistaken for an empty input, so a chat message may be appended to the user's text. Fix the detection and the changelog link before merging.

Pre-merge checks: Passed 4 · Failed 1

Failed Failed checks: 1 warning

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage Warning Docstring coverage is 71.43% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 14 functions across 10 files. (1 skipped:… Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
Passed Passed checks: 4 passed
Check name Status Explanation
Title check Passed The title is concise, specific, and accurately describes the primary change: Hermes refuses chat sends when its input contains typed text.
Description check Passed The description includes the required Change and Validation sections. It explains the problem, resulting behavior, implementation scope, contract-test coverage, and validation results.
Linked Issues check Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 71.43% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 14 functions across 10 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)

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Actionable comments posted: 2


  • 🪄 Fix comments: Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
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Inline comments:
Review comments at @changelog.d/hermes-chat-draft.md:
- Line 5: Remove the PR #859 link and author credit from the changelog fragment,
leaving the change description intact; the release process will add the correct
attribution.

Review comments at @server/prompt.ts:
- Line 2955: Update hermesInputDraft to locate the input row’s prompt marker and
check all text after it, rather than using the last ❯ in the draft; ensure text
containing ❯ remains recognized as a draft so freeHermesInput does not allow
sending over it.

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 3aceffb and a7ecec1.

📒 Files selected for processing: 11
  • changelog.d/hermes-chat-draft.md
  • server/index.ts
  • server/prompt.test.ts
  • server/prompt.ts
  • server/submit.contract.test.ts
  • src/components/PaneTerminal.tsx
  • src/components/PendingMessages.tsx
  • src/lib/compose.ts
  • src/lib/i18n.ja.ts
  • src/lib/i18n.ko.ts
  • src/lib/i18n.zh.ts

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Comment thread changelog.d/hermes-chat-draft.md Resolved
Comment thread server/prompt.ts Resolved
The fold links the merging PR only on entries that link nothing, so the entry built from #859 and #1149 links both, keeping @RikiSanjayaa's credit after #859. Also test a draft holding a ❯ without colors and an empty prompt row read with colors.
@devswha
devswha merged commit 6026c37 into main Oct 15, 2026
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@devswha
devswha deleted the fix/hermes-chat-draft branch October 15, 2026 07:30
devswha added a commit that referenced this pull request Oct 15, 2026
## Change

Follow-up to #1148, the same fix as #1149 applied to Stop.
`hermesInterruptible` took the row's **last** `❯` for Hermes' prompt. A
draft that itself contains `❯` and Hermes' busy hint (`❯ note ❯ Ctrl+C
to interrupt…`) therefore read as a running turn, and Stop would send
Ctrl+C. On an idle Hermes, that clears the user's draft, or exits Hermes
when the input is empty. The prompt is now the row's **first** `❯`, and
anything after it is input.

## Validation

- A new `hermesStop.test.ts` case (a draft quoting the TUI hint, and one
quoting the classic hint) fails on `main` and passes with this change.
The existing cases with real captured rows, both interfaces' busy and
idle rows, still pass.
- `bun run check fast`: ok.
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